We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrew Goffman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrew below.
Andrew, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you signed with an agent or manager? Why or why not?
My first agent tried to get me to sell a line of his friend’s sensual body lotions at the concession in our theater. Not knowing any better, I was actually open to this idea, but he insisted on rubbing the lotions on staff and unsuspecting audience members himself before and after the show. Then, my neighbor introduced me to Judy “Hang Up and Go” Johansen. She was a real piece of work.
Judy was very much an old school show biz type. A relic from long ago, loud, eccentric, and with this strange habit of hanging up without ever saying goodbye! She was a firecracker, with flaming red hair, and she could have passed as Lucille Ball’s bizarre doppelgänger. She also had a Boston accent as thick as clam chowder and called everyone a Rock STAAAR! Reality was, she was a fading star whose heyday was behind her. She did not have the clout to help my career. I think I only hired Judy because she had the same first name as my mother. Logic at its finest.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I began as a stand up comic, traveling the country and performing at comedy clubs for years. I barely survived my first comedy tour of the South and would just like to offer some advice to any budding stand up comedians out there. If there is a “ville” at the end of the place’s name, you’re apt to be doing your show in some dive bar, standing on a plank of plywood that’s been set over a pool table, to a bunch of in-bred, grit-sucking, pork-rind munching corn-shuckers. And I say that with all due respect!
I was trying to stand out at stand up, but it wasn’t easy. I wanted to be the Beyoncé of comedy, but life handed me the booty shorts of a back up dancer. Let me give you an idea of the cutting edge material I was using in those days. “I’ve been dating a girl named Virginia – I called her ‘Virgin’ for short – but not for long!”
Then I thought it would be a good idea to take my material and turn it into a one man show in NYC. I did it and it turned into a success – a show called THE ACCIDENTAL PERVERT, about finding my Dad’s porn videotape collection when I was 10 years old. The show ran off-Broadway for years and was also licensed to many countries worldwide. Our goal was to pervert the world, one country at a time. I am working on a book about the show, which will be released later this year. It’s called PLAYING WITH YOURSELF: The Making of a One Man Show. Recently I started a series of t-shirts called AccidentalTees.com with some very cool designs that include the mascot from the show. THE ACCIDENTAL PERVERT universe is expanding!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
In theater, we always want a large, shoulder to shoulder audience. But sometimes small audiences can be better than larger ones. There is one night when we were doing The Accidental Pervert that stands out in my memory that involved two particular people. Two. Because that’s how many people were in the audience. It was a bitter cold winter night. We had been doing well with crowds but on this night our pre-sale tickets were at zero and because of the weather we had little walk-in business. Five minutes before show time Charles came backstage and said, “We only have 2 people here. Do you still want to do the show?” Without a second thought, I said yes.
I’ll tell you this – One takeaway from doing a performance for only two people is learning to navigate the awkwardness when one of them decides to take a bathroom break. After all, 50% of your audience just walked out! Do you pause or press on? Do you patiently wait, or keep the show rolling? Or, you could take my approach: Follow her to the ladies room to ensure she doesn’t miss a beat! Talk about resilience. Now that’s thinking outside the black box!
Turns out both of them really loved the show. And fell in love with each other also – and got married and had twins and named them both Andrew!
Just kidding!
But it was a valuable lesson about how the show must always go on! Years later when the show was playing to sold out audiences I would often think back to that night doing the show with only two people in the audience with great pride.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
This would probably be a good time to tell you that I have sex daily. Uh, what I meant to say is that I have dyslexia! It is a condition I learned to live and perform with. I’ve had it since I was a kid and it’s made learning, in general, a challenge. As a performer, it made learning my lines a nightmare. It’s always been like that for me. Some things are just made much more difficult with dyslexia. But if I wanted my show to succeed I would have to find a way to manage it. Or else I’d end up like the dyslexic mounted policeman – he kept hopping off his whistle and blowing his horse! I certainly didn’t want that. Eventually I started to laugh at myself. My favorite Dyslexia joke is the one about the two dyslexic bank robbers. They walk into the bank with guns out, shouting, “Hands in the air, mother stickers, this is a fuck up!”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theaccidentalpervert.com
- Other: www.accidentaltees.com
Image Credits
TheAccidentalPervert.com